Hyderabad: Over seven months into administering Andhra Pradesh, the Chandrababu Naidu government has affected a major reshuffle in the top rungs of bureaucracy and police.
A total of 25 IAS officers and 27 IPS officers were transferred, according to two separate orders issued Monday evening by Chief Secretary K. Vijayanand.
While a few of the IPS officers who kept waiting for months—a delay being attributed to their alleged proximity with leaders of the opposition YSRCP—were given loop line postings, the wait continues for others.
Yerra Srilakshmi (1988 batch), Muralidhar Reddy (2006), Mutyalaraju Revu (2007), Madhavi Latha (2014) and Neelakanta Reddy (2017)—all of whom are attached to the General Administration Department (GAD)—are awaiting postings since June i.e., soon after Naidu took over.
Some of these officers had worked in proximity with former chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy or are perceived to be close to the previous regime. One of the above officers is on election duty in Delhi while another is in mid-career training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA).
G. Sai Prasad (1991), who was a front-runner for the chief secretary post that finally went to Vijayanand (1992 batch) in December, got a noteworthy posting.
A special chief secretary (CS) to the state government in the Water Resources Department, Prasad is now re-designated as special CS, Water Resources Department, and ex-officio special chief secretary to CM Naidu.
“Prasad is senior to Vijayanand and should have become the CS. The arrangement now is, I think, to allow him to bypass the CS approval requirements pertaining to his department files etc., matters,” an IAS officer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Prasad served as Naidu’s secretary and principal secretary from 2014 to 2019.
Peeyush Kumar (1997), who was called back from central deputation in June and appointed as principal secretary to the chief minister, has been transferred and posted as principal finance secretary. Peeyush also has full additional charge of the post of principal secretary, Planning Department. He is accompanying Naidu to the World Economic Forum Summit at Davos.
Suresh Kumar (2000), principal secretary, Infrastructure and Investment (I&I) Department, has been transferred and posted as principal secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban (MA&UD) Department. Kumar has also been relieved as FAC of the General Administration Department (Political).
Bhaskar Katamneni (2004), commissioner, AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), has been posted as secretary, Department of IT, Electronics and Communications (ITC&E) and also given full additional charge as secretary, Real Time Governance Society (RTGS) and Grama Sachivalayam, Ward Sachivalayam (GSWS), reliving Suresh Kumar.
Katamneni was given the AP Capital Region Development Authority charge only in June. CRDA is the executing agency of Naidu’s brainchild Amaravati capital project.
Kanna Babu (2006), secretary, Social Welfare Department, has been brought in as the commissioner, CRDA.
V Karuna, (2005), who was repatriated from Telangana in October and appointed the commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, has been posted as chief executive officer, Society for Elimination for Rural Poverty (SERP) & ex-officio secretary to the government.
Hari Narayanan (2011) director, Municipal Administration, has been posted as IG, Registration and Stamps.
In all, 25 officers were affected by the latest round of transfers in AP.
“Unfortunately, some of the officers were transferred within months from their roles they were just getting familiar with. These transfers are a deviation from Naidu’s mark of good governance,” an IAS officer said.
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Some get postings, wait continues for others
Rajiv Kumar Meena, (IPS 1995 batch), additional director general of police (Operations), Greyhounds & Octopus, has been posted as chairman, State Level Police Recruitment Board.
Madhusudhana Reddy (1997), additional DGP, who was waiting for a posting, has been made ADGP, L&O. Ch Srikanth (2002), IGP, L&O, has been posted as IGP, Operations. He has been given full additional charge of IGP, Technical Services.
Half a dozen officers, attached to the DGP office, awaiting postings for several months now have been finally rehabilitated, though in loop line posts, by Naidu. Some of these officers allegedly functioned at the behest of YSRCP leaders, during Jagan’s tenure.
The officers are: G Pala Raju, (IPS 2005), IGP, now posted as director, FSL. Satya Yesu Babu (2011), DIG, posted as DIG, PTO. KKN Anburajan, (2011), DIG, who was Kadapa SP during Jagan’s rule, has been posted as DIG, Welfare & Sports.
Babujee Attada, (2011), DIG, who was SP (Intelligence) earlier, has been posted as DIG, Greyhounds. Parameswara Reddy, (2016), has been posted as SP, SCRB, CID. Krishna Kanth Patel, (2018), SP, has been posted as DCP (Admn.) Visakhapatnam.
Harshavardhan Raju, (2013), has been made SP, Tirupati. The IPS officer, who was sent to Kadapa in July by Naidu, was relieved from the post and attached to the DGP office in November. Raju faced the government’s wrath as the district police under his command had let off Varra Ravindra Reddy, a YSRCP man allegedly close to Jagan’s family, after serving him a CrPC Section 41-A notice. Varra is accused of posting derogatory social media content on the TDP, JSP leaders and also APCC chief YS Sharmila.
Two IPS officers who were transferred out of Tirupati following the stampede that killed six devotees earlier this month were also given postings.
L Subbarayudu, (2013 batch IPS of Telangana cadre), who was SP, Tirupati, has been posted as SP, Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force, Tirupati. A 2013 IPS officer of Telangana cadre, Subbarayudu, who earlier served as Naidu’s chief security officer, is on deputation to AP.
S Sreedhar, (2017), who was chief vigilance and security officer at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), has been posted as SP, CID.
All the above postings were lying vacant.
Four IPS officers continue to be under suspension. Additional DG rank officer N Sanjay (1996), who earlier was the AP CID chief, was suspended in December following vigilance and enforcement probe reports on irregularities during his tenure as director general, AP State Disaster Response & Fire Services and additional DG, AP CID.
Former director general of police, Intelligence, P. Sitharama Anjaneyulu, IPS (1992), former commissioner of police, Vijayawada, Kanthi Rana Tata, IPS (2004), and former deputy commissioner of police, Vijayawada, Vishal Gunni, IPS (2010), were suspended in September for their alleged misconduct and dereliction of duty in the wrong arrest case involving model-actress Kadambari Jethwani.
IPS officers still waiting for postings include PV Sunil Kumar (1993 batch), the CID chief before Sanjay, Dr Kolli Raghuram Reddy (2006), intelligence SP and deputy inspector general (DIG) under Jagan, Rishanth Reddy, who was SP in Chittoor, home-turf of YSRCP heavyweight Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, and P Joshua, who also served as SP, Chittoor, later.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)